Molly Bloom
Built and operated the largest and most notorious private poker game in the world
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She is best known for her memoir, Molly’s Game, which was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name by Aaron Sorkin. Bloom’s memoir chronicles her journey from college student to LA waitress to building and operating the largest and most notorious private poker game in the world.
- Inspirational Keynote Speaker
- Entrepreneur
- Bestselling Author of Molly’s Game (which was adapted for Oscar nominated film)
*Fee ranges are presented as a guideline only. Speaker fees are subject to change without notice. For an exact quote, please contact your Speaker Exchange Agency representative.
A luminary in the world of inspirational keynote speakers, Molly Bloom is an entrepreneur, bestselling author, former member of the U.S. Ski Team, one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, and host of the two-time Gold Signal award-winning podcast, “Torched,” featuring the inspiring stories of world-class competitive athletes. She achieved fame as the subject of Aaron Sorkin’s Oscar-nominated film, Molly’s Game, based on her bestselling memoir. Molly’s Game chronicles Bloom’s journey from college student and former Olympic skiing hopeful to LA waitress to head of the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in the world. With no-limit stakes that could top $100 million and celebrity players such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, A-Rod and Tobey Maguire, “Molly’s Game,” was a Hollywood-worthy achievement for a 25-year-old small town Colorado girl.
Bloom’s first career was as a world-class skier, an achievement that defied the dire prognosis of medical experts. At age 12, she had been diagnosed with severe scoliosis, undergoing spinal fusion surgery that doctors said would prevent her from ever competing again. Defiant and determined, Bloom was back on the slopes in a year. At 19, she made the U.S. Ski Team. At 20, she was ranked #3 in North America in the moguls. At 21, Bloom was firmly on the path to the Olympics. In her qualifying run, a frozen pine bough caused one of her skis to release, leading to a devastating crash and a forced retirement from the sport she loved.
Bloom finished her political science degree at the University of Colorado and was applying to elite law schools when she decided to take a year-long sabbatical and move to LA. She found work as a waitress and personal assistant to a man who ran a high-stakes poker game frequented by celebrities. Teaching herself the business and forging important relationships, Bloom took the risk of going out on her own. “Molly’s Game” was born. Over the next six years, she went from running a multi-million-dollar business to being raided by the FBI. Even in the face of extreme adversity, she always maintained her integrity.
With her millions gone and life in ruins, Bloom set her mind to writing a book. Publishers were interested, but only if she named names. Keeping to her promise to
never again compromise her integrity or lower her moral standards, Bloom persevered until she found a publisher that would work with her on her terms. Molly’s Game became a bestselling memoir, one that she convinced Oscar-winning screenwriter and director, Aaron Sorkin, to turn into an Academy Award-winning movie.
Today, Molly Bloom is a top-booked speaker, podcast host, mother, mentor to other women, and advocate. She has appeared on Ellen, Vice, NPR, Vulture and in The Los Angeles Times and Forbes. In 2020, at the height of the COVID pandemic, she founded the One World Group with her husband, neuroscientist Devin Effinger. The online group seeks to connect people around the world, especially women facing challenges. In 2022, Bloom launched, “Torched,” a podcast exploring Olympic controversies and the heat of competition. As host, she shares stories about the cost of greatness, both on and off the Olympic stage—from the Tour de France to Title IX to the World Cup.
In today’s world of media overload and disconnection, it’s increasingly more important to connect and engage effectively with people for work, family and in everyday life. Affective Presence is the exciting and previously unexplored science of how you connect and engage with people, make them feel, and create an impact. It is a buildable skill that has the potential to transform the lives of those who employ it and make the world a better place.
From running the largest poker games in the world, populated by some of the richest and most powerful, to convincing Aaron Sorkin, the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood to adapt her book, to becoming one of the most booked speakers in the industry, Molly Bloom has identified the through line responsible for her success, Affective Presence.
In this interactive session, you will learn the top methods for building Affective Presence, develop practical takeaways and practice how to engage and connect with people for all aspects of work and life.
What’s it like to run an exclusive poker game for the rich and famous? Molly Bloom went from olympic-level skier who didn’t know a thing about poker or Hollywood to building and operating the largest and most notorious private poker game in the world. In this motivational talk, Bloom will show the sales and marketing skills she used to attract hundreds of millions of dollars to the game and spark the interest of players like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, A-Rod, and Ben Affleck. Audiences will get the inside story not shown in the film as Bloom shares true-life tales of her experience.
How do you come back from a failure? After the FBI arrested Molly Bloom and confiscated all her earnings from her poker business, she could have given up. Instead, she used the same lessons she learned from her father that led her to come back from back surgery to be ranked No. 3 in North America in moguls, to overcome this setback. She wrote the bestselling memoir, Molly’s Game, convinced Aaron Sorkin to write the screenplay, and the film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. In this inspiring talk, Bloom will share true stories and life lessons showing that when you bet on yourself in business, you can always win.
Molly Bloom didn’t know a thing about running a poker business when she was asked to set up the most exclusive high stakes poker game in Hollywood. She was faced with the daunting question: how do you create an experience that will keep the rich and famous coming back when they can go anywhere to play poker? Molly found if she built a unique customer culture, not only would players come back, the game would become so exclusive that everyone would want to be a part of it. In this exciting and informative talk, Bloom shows how she created an experience like no other for her players and how you can apply the same principles for creating an exclusive experience for your customers.
In business, story is one of the most powerful tools you can use to sell your product, your brand, and yourself. For poker entrepreneur Molly Bloom, her product, brand, and person were one and the same: Molly’s Game. The stories she used to sell and market her poker business helped turn an underground poker game into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. In this funny and enlightening talk, Molly shares the insider secrets that helped her create the most popular poker game in L.A. and New York.
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